His Luna's Forgotten Scars novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Hearing at the Stones

They held the hearing on the Ironwood bank, at the flat grey stones where the two packs had signed their treaty a hundred years ago.

Sixty Ironwood wolves ringed the stones.

The Elder took the highest one and planted his staff in the dirt.

I stood alone in the middle with my wet jeans clinging to my legs.

Nobody stood beside me.

"Alpha Stroud," the Elder said. "State your complaint."

Garrick stepped forward.

He did not look at me.

"One year ago this month, my pack's herb store burned to the ground," he said. "One of my warriors was asleep in the loft above it. He did not wake."

A murmur ran around the ring.

"Alpha Stroud's Luna was seen leaving the burning building," Garrick said. "She ran from the fire. She ran from my son. She left me no word, and she has not been seen on Ironwood land for a year."

"I don't remember any of that," I said.

"Silence," the Elder said. "You will speak when you are called."

"Then call me."

"Rowena," the Elder said, slow and dry. "Did you burn the herb store?"

"No."

"Can you prove it?"

I opened my mouth.

I remembered a pole and the rain and a leather lash.

I did not remember the fire, or the night before it.

"No," I said.

A low, ugly noise rolled around the stones.

"Alpha Stroud calls a witness," the Elder said.

A woman stepped out of the ring.

It was Lorna, in her healer's apron with her blonde hair braided back, and her eyes red.

She would not look at me either.

"I'm so sorry, Rowena," she said.

Her voice shook, and it carried across the stones.

"I saw you that night," Lorna said. "I came out of the house for air. You were at the door of the herb store with a can of lamp oil in your hands. I called out to you, and you looked at me, and you ran."

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